Panama's natural side

There's more to Panama than the canal. Its natural beauty and culture also lure visitors

By Theresa Storm, For The Calgary HeraldNovember 10, 2008

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA - Even those prone to carsickness said the hour-and-a-half journey on a twisting road slicing through jungle to Chagres National Park was worth it.

On the shore of the Chagres River, the Panama Canal's main water source, two men garbed in long, bright loincloths greet us.

The gently smiling elder wears a dozen strands of beads crisscrossed over his torso, a silver necklace and wide tin bracelets. The younger man, hair slicked back, is less adorned, a few beads slung over one side, a thick beaded necklace, the same bracelets.

Piling into a piragua, a motorized dugout canoe, we begin our journey upriver to Tusi Pono, an Embera Indian village whose name means bird flower.

From a grassy knoll, the boys and men welcome us. As we disembark, a six-man band plays a lilting tune on deer-hide drums and bamboo flute, turtle shell, wooden grater and maracas.

It is a National Geographic moment, exotic and surreal.

Giggling children walk us to the bohio, the palm-thatched social hut raised on stilts, where chief Antonio Tocamo shares the Embera's lifestyle and customs.

The women, among the world's finest basket weavers, demonstrate how they weave supple chunga palm strands, dyed with natural extracts, into flat plates, bowls, and masks. The men carve intricate pieces from cocobolo wood and tiny tagua nuts, known as vegetable ivory.

All are artisans, Tocamo explains.

This and low-impact, small-scale ecotourism is how the 53 villagers make their living, allowing them to maintain their traditional ways and protect their rainforest home.

"We are like park rangers without the salary," he says.

For the next three hours, we enjoy fried tilapia and plantains served in a cone-shaped banana leaf, followed by music and dancing, body painting with temporary black jagua fruit dye, and shopping for beautiful handicrafts direct from the artist.

We were promised it would be the most memorable experience of our trip. It was, followed closely by the antics of a family of white-faced capuchin monkeys isolated on the canal's Monkey Island, whom we visited on a wildlife safari by motorboat, then later by kayak, with a naturalist from the Gamboa Rainforest

Resort at the Panama Canal.

Fronting the Chagres just before it drains into the canal, the 136-hectare upscale nature resort lies in the centre of the Panamanian Isthmus, just

27 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean and Panama City and 40 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. Its location in the heart of Soberania National Park is perfect for exploring the wonders -- natural and man-made -- of central Panama, the most visited region.

Gamboa's onsite aerial tram transports guests and day trippers, accompanied by a naturalist, to an observation tower above the rainforest canopy, with views of the Chagres and Gaillard Cut, the canal section that required the most excavation and thus is the narrowest.

After the tram, the resort's zoological and botanical exhibits display Panamanian rainforest treasures, including a fish and reptile exhibit, serpentarium, butterfly house, model Indian village, and orchid, forest plant and garden nurseries.

Visitors can choose from an enticing host of guided activities to experience the country's wild side, like sport fishing, boating, and kayaking, birdwatching and trekking.

Further afield, but still close, are other tourist highlights. With the country just 78,000 square kilometres (compared to Canada's almost 10 million), it does not take long to get anywhere, another reason for Panama's rising popularity.

Within 30 minutes is Miraflores Visitors Center, a must-see for all first-timers to the Panama Canal. Here, metres away, vessels transit the canal through two sets of locks. Inside, four state-of-the-art exhibition halls tell the story of the canal's history, construction, operation and importance.

Thirty minutes away is Panama City, where new startlingly juxtaposes with old.

This booming Central American capital was not what I expected, especially the modernity and wealth of its new section, chock-a-block with oceanfront glass skyscrapers. A forest of cranes fills the sky, constructing 25 new highrises, including the Trump Ocean Club.

I was also surprised by the ruins in ruin. Much of Casco Viejo, the 16th century fortressed old city at the southern end of Panama Bay, is crumbling and dilapidated. And it's not the only historic site in this sad condition. Fortunately, there is talk of government restoration.

Leaving the city and crossing the impressive Bridge of the Americas, which marks the western entrance to the canal, we arrive, 25 minutes later, at the new InterContinental Playa Bonita Resort & Spa on the Pacific coast, the first luxury beach resort near Panama City.

Strolling the private, 1.6-kilometre-long golden beach while gazing at the line of ships waiting to enter the canal, I marvel at all the things we have experienced in just four days.

"Panama has seen a rapid increase as a tourist destination in the past two years," Edgar Perez, Gamboa's general manager, told us.

It is a cinch to see why.

GREEN HILLS OF PANAMA

Panama is a mix of rugged mountains and rolling hills. U.S. forces invaded the country in 1989, deposing dictator Manuel Noriega. Panama is in the midst of a building boom and is the second-most-industrialized country in Central America.

WEALTH OF WILDLIFE

Bordering much of the east side of the Panama Canal, Soberania National Park is a haven for wildlife, including jaguars, snakes and some 525 species of birds.

- Gamboa Rainforest Resort at the Panama Canal (gamboaresort.com) has just added 58 rooms and suites and renovated its 33 historical village villas, totalling 198 rooms. If you can't stay overnight, make this a day trip. Tours are reasonably priced.

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